Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday witnessed decliners outnumber gainers but overall it closed marginally up, after being in the bearish mode for the last eight sessions.
Notwithstanding robust demand in telecom and consumer goods, the 20-stock Qatar Index rose by a miniscule 0.04% to 10,157.37 points.
The initial weakening led the market touch a low little above 10,100 points in the first 15 minutes, after which there was buying pressure but in a haphazard manner for the next 60 minutes, taking the index near 10,140 points.
The index was once again gripped by profit booking for the next 15 minutes to a low of 10,100 points. The market then was supported by buying pressure, especially in the last minute, thus settling it marginally up four points against the previous close.
Buying was seen stronger within small and microcap segments in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 2.68%.
Islamic stocks however were seen outperforming the main index as well as other indices in the market, where foreign institutions and Gulf individuals turned bullish and there was also weak net selling by non-Qatari retail investors.
However, domestic institutions turned bearish and there was lower net buying by local retail investors.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where telecom, real estate and banking sectors together accounted for about 90% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation was up QR49mn or 0.09% to QR547.31bn as small, micro and large cap equities gained 0.43%, 0.33% and 0.02% respectively, while midcaps were down 0.19%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.04% to 17,033.31 points, All Share Index by 0.05% to 2,894.88 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.24% to 4,092.25 points.
The telecom sector’s index gained 1.13%, consumer goods (0.45%), insurance (0.2%) and transport (0.14%), whereas realty and industrials declined 0.24% and 0.08% respectively. The banking and financial services index was largely flat.
Major gainers included Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Insurance, Doha Bank, Medicare Group, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan and Widam Food.
Nevertheless, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar First Bank, Barwa, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Qatar National Cement, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Nakilat were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR8.76mn compared with net sellers of QR25.5mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) retail investors were net buyers to the extent of QR4.07mn against net sellers of QR0.76mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR2.93mn compared to QR4.55mn on April 24.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR25.48mn against net buyers of QR2.45mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net buying weakened influentially to QR15.11mn compared to QR25.82mn on Monday.
The GCC institutions’ net buying also fell perceptibly to QR0.98mn against QR2.56mn on April 24.
Total trade volumes rose 45% to 11.54mn shares, value by 25% to QR271.23mn and deals by 11% to 3,379.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.5mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR54.16mn on 36% increase in transactions to 392.
The insurance sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.04mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR3.1mn on 37% jump in deals to 41.
The real estate sector saw 54% surge in trade volume to 3.09mn shares and 70% in value to QR61.67mn on more than doubled transactions to 599.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume expanded 28% to 2.74mn equities, value by 45% to QR96.5mn and deals by 13% to 1,044.
However, there was 61% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.39mn stocks, 45% in value to QR13.19mn and 26% in transactions to 268.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 12% to 0.29mm shares, value by 35% to QR15.11mn and deals by 25% to 292.
The market witnessed 4% decline in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.49mn equities, 29% in value to QR27.49mn and 1% in transactions to 743.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Related Story